Israelis flee to shelters as Gaza militants fire dozens of rockets

Gaza militants fired some 50 rockets at Israel last night in an intense one-hour barrage, sending Israelis throughout the south running to bomb shelters.

Sirens also sounded in the area of Rehovot, only 20km (12 miles) south of Tel Aviv and in Bet Shemesh, 30km (19 miles) from Jerusalem.

The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a number of incoming projectiles. Hamas claimed responsibility for the firing.

With Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli air strikes continuing throughout yesterday, Israel’s security cabinet decided to prepare for a major campaign against Gaza militants. An extra 1,500 army reservists were called up to the southern border. An army official said: “Quiet was not met with quiet, and therefore we are preparing for an escalation.”

Israel continued to boost armoured units and infantry along the Gaza border and the army said it was ready to launch a ground operation if and when the order was given.

Residents in southern Israel close to the Gaza strip were ordered to stay 15 seconds from bomb shelters at all times and gatherings of more than 500 people were banned. Public bomb shelters were opened in southern towns.

Retaliation threat

Earlier, Hamas vowed that Israel would pay a “tremendous price” after nine militants were killed in Gaza overnight on Sunday, dashing hopes of an imminent ceasefire to end almost two weeks of tit-for-tat violence.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of committing a “grave escalation” in violence and threatened to retaliate, saying Israel would “pay the price”.

The Israeli military said it had hit “terror sites and concealed rocket launchers” in air strikes overnight on Sunday.

Nine fatalities marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the second Gaza war in November 2012, but the sides had differing versions of events.

Seven Hamas gunmen were killed in a smuggling tunnel near the Egyptian border that Hamas says was hit from the air. Israel said the men were victims of a “work accident”, claiming the tunnel was not among the targets hit in the latest wave of air strikes. The tunnel was targeted a few days earlier and it appears the Hamas men were carrying out repair work when it collapsed, possibly when explosives stored in the tunnel were detonated.

Israeli ministers are divided over whether or not to step up attacks on Gaza, knowing such a move is likely to result in Tel Aviv coming under long-range rocket fire.

The first political fallout from the ongoing divisions came yesterday when foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has long advocated reoccupying Gaza, announced he was ending his political alliance with prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud party.

“Recently, the differences of opinion between the prime minister and myself have become fundamental and over principles,” he told a news conference.

Mr Lieberman’s decision means his Yisrael Beiteinu party , which ran with the Likud on a joint list in the last election, will now operate again as a separate party.

However, he made it clear he will continue to serve as foreign minister and his party will remain in the coalition.

His decision prompted criticism that he was “playing politics” while hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the south are sitting in bomb shelters.

Most analysts argued Mr Lieberman’s real aim is to set himself up as a contender on the right against Mr Netanyahu, with growing speculation that the elections will be bought forward to next year.

Verge of collapse

For now the coalition remains intact, but opposition leader

Yitzhak Herzog

of Labour described the government as “on the verge of collapse”. He urged the centrist parties to quit and form a new government with Labour. “This is a government that has frozen its dealings and thus is on the verge of complete dissolution.”

A gagging order remains in place on details of the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdair, the 16-year-old Palestinian resident of Jerusalem who was killed by six Jewish extremists last week to avenge the murder of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank. Police say three of the six have admitted to the murder and re-enacted the crime.

Mr Netanyahu phoned the victim’s father, Hussein Abu Khdair, to express his outrage at the murder. “I want to express my shock, and the shock of all Israeli citizens, at the heinous murder of your son,” he said .

“We acted immediately to locate the murderers, and they will be brought to justice. We reject all cruel behaviour, and the murder of your son is heinous and cannot be accepted by any human being.”